DRAGAL I: THE DRAGON’S INHERITANCE synopsis

Dragal I: The Dragon’s Inheritance (264 pages) is the first in a series of novels that tell the story of Dragal, the Galician dragon seeking to reincarnate in the body of a boy, Hadrián. Two more titles have been published – Dragal II: The Dragon’s Metamorphosis and Dragal III: the Dragon’s Fraternity – and further novels are planned. A film of these three novels, together with other multimedia content, is currently in production.

At school, the maths teacher, Miss Ermidas, is handing back the pupils’ exams. When she gets to Hadrián’s desk, she gives him back his paper and Hadrián is delighted to see that he has got a 10. The stone dragon on the cornice of the nearby church of St Peter’s is also delighted and gives him a wink. Miss Ermidas has been worried about Hadrián ever since he arrived at the school after his father’s death. She can’t fathom how he managed to get such a high mark, but hopes that the wounds of his father’s death and his subsequent move from another city are starting to heal.

Before moving to Galicia with his mother, Hadrián has only ever been on holiday. But when his father dies in an accident, he is forced to move there permanently. He is unpacking his things when his mother enters his new bedroom and hands him an amulet that used to belong to his father. On one side is a dragon in a threatening gesture, on the other what looks like the same animal incubating an egg. Six weeks into term, he notices images of the dragon on the capitals of the church next to his school, St Peter’s, and a larger effigy of the dragon on the cornice, which winks at him. When the history teacher, Mr Alberte, explains about the dragons on the church’s façade, Hadrián has already spotted about seven of them. When asked what a dragon is doing there, he says it’s ‘waiting for its moment to come’.

Hadrián is searching for the medallion in his bedroom. When he finds it, he notices the tails of the dragon move. Frightened, he goes out of his bedroom to find his grandmother’s old Bible in the hope that this will protect him from whatever force is hidden in that medallion. During the night, he remembers a story his father told him when he was little about a dragon that lived in the village and harassed the local inhabitants. Some thought about the best way to kill the dragon, but others formed a secret order of knights with the aim of protecting the dragon’s magic.

Hadrián stares at the dragon on the cornice of the church and doesn’t pay attention to the maths teacher’s explanations. When she asks him to come to the front and explain the solution to a maths problem, he finds that a voice in his head, that of the dragon, solves the problem for him. The maths teacher is again amazed at his ability. Hadrián visits St Peter’s and talks in his mind to the dragon on the frontispiece. He also receives answers. The parish priest, Father Xurxo, notices him standing outside and is intrigued. Hadrián explains that he is the grandson of Miss Xulia, one of the priest’s most devout parishioners before she died, and the priest remembers how he once healed a scrape on the boy’s knee. When Hadrián expresses an interest in dragons, the vicar takes him inside and shows him the ten dragon heads that adorn the double vault. On leaving the church, the boy is met by a classmate, Mónica, who reminds him he missed handing in a project they were supposed to have done for their language class.

Hadrián explains the reason for his absence and Mónica accepts an invitation to complete the assignment at Hadrián’s house. After they’ve finished, she asks to see the medallion. Hadrián is initially unwilling, but then takes her upstairs to see it. Mónica is holding the medallion when the dragon’s tails move again. Hoping to find answers to the enigma of the medallion, Hadrián suggests visiting his great-grandfather’s old library in the house, where Mónica discovers an ancient manuscript called The Secrets of Alchemy. Under ‘D’, there is a description of a dragon and, when Hadrián returns to his bedroom, he finds the tails on the medallion have copied the illuminated initial in the manuscript.

The maths teacher, Miss Ermidas, tries to reach out to Hadrián, warning him not to miss the train of his life. She’s been worried about him ever since he moved to Galicia following his father’s death. Hadrián is grateful for the gesture, but runs outside. Meanwhile, Miss Ermidas notices a whole series of geometrical forms and mathematical formulas scribbled on Hadrián’s desk. She asks the caretaker to ensure all the desks are cleaned by the morning. Mónica does some research on the Internet and comes across a pencil drawing of the dragon incubating an egg. When she prints it out, she discovers some text that says this is a reproduction of the medallion of the Grand Master of the Order of Dragal, dating to the eleventh century, but when she tries to find the image again, it appears to have disappeared as if by magic and doesn’t show up in search results. She now knows there is an Order of Dragal, which must be the order of knights who swore to protect the dragon’s magic. At home, Hadrián continues to peruse the ancient manuscript The Secrets of Alchemy, rereading the entry for ‘Dragon’ and discovering an entry for ‘Alchemy’, both of which refer to the Grand Master – the Grand Master of what? Hadrián leaves their maths class the next day without giving Mónica time to tell him about her discovery and revisits the Moor’s Pool, which he first visited as a child with his father. There were three pools. When he tried the water in the first two pools, it was freezing. His father then dived into the third pool, where the water was warm. He explained how an alchemist had come to the village, looking for the dragon. The alchemist had gone deranged and the dragon had kidnapped his beautiful daughter, keeping her prisoner in a cave under the water, but, when the dragon’s attention was diverted, the daughter had discovered the key to her prison, which she would give her champion together with the secret of the elixir of eternal life.

Before their language class, Mónica goes looking for Hadrián in St Peter’s, where she meets the priest. He explains to her the symbolism of the images on the vault, which shows the Apocalypse, the Virgin and Child, and the dragon heads representing evil. He also hands her a book for them to read, A History of St Peter’s by Friar Paulo de Misteri. After class, Hadrián and Mónica arrange to meet at Hadrián’s house. She shares with him the pencil drawing and the book by Friar Paulo de Misteri, in which they discover there used to be a stone cross on the frontispiece, where the effigy of the dragon now stands, with an inscription in Latin that said ‘Crux sacra sit mihi lux. Non draco sit mihi dux’. They also discover there were catacombs under the church, where the earliest Christians worshipped, and that, having destroyed the first Christian church, the dragon took refuge in these catacombs. When the Order of Dragal undertook the rebuilding of the church, a bishop from the Vatican altered the original plans and had the representation of the Apocalypse, of the triumph over evil, installed on the vault. They decide they have to find out who then replaced the stone cross with the effigy of the dragon.